FLASH, BANG, WALLOP – WHAT A CAMERA BUFF

If the Queen ever held an exhibition of her snaps it would be a sell-out. The Royal Encyclopaedia published in 1991 includes one of her photos of a beaming Winston Churchill at Balmoral as well as a profile of Prince Philip rowing on Loch Muick. In 1958 the Leitz camera company gave her a camera. Then in the 60s she was presented with a gold-plated Rollei 35S (right), though by the 80s she was using a more straightforward Canon Sure Shot. Over the years she’s been seen using all three at the Royal Windsor Horse Show as well as when she watched Princess Anne compete at horse trials. She has also sneaked photos on foreign visits, for instance on the Great Wall of China. When she visited Russia in 1994 and stayed at the Kremlin she got up early to snap the iconic setting before being taken round a few hours later on an official tour by Boris Yeltsin.